This invention relates to market index indicators.
Stock indexes (e.g., the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq 100, the Standard & Poor's 500, etc.) are grouping of various securities, which are traded in a stock market or on an exchange. These indexes are valued in a way that takes into account the value of each individual security included in the index, such that a variation in the value of an individual security affects the value of the stock index.
An example of a stock market is The Nasdaq Stock Market®, whereas an example of an exchange is the New York Stock Exchange®.
As a traditional, floor-traded, exchange, the New York Stock Market requires interaction on a trading floor between human traders to accomplish stock trades. This trading most typically occurs during regular trading hours (which is commonly referred to as the regular trading session). However, electronic trading has been proposed for exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange. Stock markets which trade electronically, such as the Nasdaq Stock Market, additionally allow for automated “extended-hours” trading between traders via computers before and after normal trading hours.
As electronic or other types of trading allow for “extended-hours” trading, if a security included in a stock index is traded during these “extended-hours”, the value of that security will typically change as a result of this trading activity. Accordingly, the value of any stock index including the traded security will also change. Unfortunately, the value of this stock index which includes the traded security generally is not recalculated until the beginning of the regular trading session (i.e., non-extended-hours) for that stock market.